"A-Rod is the future of baseball. He's exactly what the game needs: a Dominican wonder kid with Hollywood looks, one of the best players in the game, the highest-paid deal in baseball at just 22 years-old. No question he's our cover guy."

That was my argument as a young editor back in March of 1998 for putting A-Rod on the premiere cover of ESPN The Magazine, along with Kobe Bryant, Eric Lindros and Kordell "Slash" Stewart (oops).

Who knew A-Rod would never live up to the hype? He would never be the superstar, stand-up guy we expected. It seemed he was never able to get out from his own ego to be a consistent clutch performer. Who knew 15 years later we'd be talking about Alex Rodriguez and Pete Rose in the same sentence, or debating whether the Yankees third baseman should be banned for life from baseball for taking performance enhancing drugs and trying to cover up his cheating? Maybe we just expected too much.

Today, Major League Baseball agreed to 50-game suspensions for 12 players for their involvement with the south-Florida Biogenesis clinic, which allegedly supplied the athletes with performance enhancing drugs.

But it was A-Rod, the biggest star named in the cheating scandal who felt the brunt of MLB's wrath. He was suspended for 211 games through the end of the 2014 season. If the ruling holds up, the 38-year-old player will not be allowed to return to the game until he's 40. But, baseball rules being what they are, A-Rod will still be allowed to play, starting tonight, while he appeals his suspension.

Roxanne Jones

No matter what the eventual outcome of the Rodriguez story, the never-ending saga of cheaters in what was once America's pastime has hurt the game and alienated fans.

"Cheating makes me question the game," says Charlie Thompson, 28, a lifelong Yankee fan. "I remember (Sammy) Sosa and (Mark) McGwire going for 60 homers when I was a kid. That was an amazing part of my childhood. And I didn't think at any time that they were cheating. But once I found out they were using steroids it left a bad taste in my mouth. Everything is fake."

It is a sad ending for someone with so much promise. Back in 1998, A-Rod was an American success story. And as my colleagues and I nervously launched our scrappy upstart ESPN the Magazine we celebrated him, even with his record-breaking $252 million contract over 10 years. (Increased by the Yankees in 2007 to a 10-year, $275 million deal.)

After all, it was the era of the young guns, when sports stars and rock stars took top spots in the popular culture. A-Rod fit right in with the exclusive list of elite young talents who were next in line to change the world, or at least our world.

Photos: Drug scandals in sports 20 photos

Photos: Drug scandals in sports20 photos

Drug scandals in sports – New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez was suspended in August 2013 after he was accused of having ties to Biogenesis, a now-defunct anti-aging clinic, and taking performance-enhancing drugs. The suspension covers 211 regular-season games through the 2014 season. Rodriguez denied the accusations and said he intends to appeal. Twelve other Major League Baseball players received 50-game suspensions without pay in the Biogenesis probe, and In July, Milwaukee Brewers star outfielder Ryan Braun was suspended for the rest of the season for violating the league's drug policy.

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Drug scandals in sports – Lance Armstong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from professional cycling in October 2012 after being accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong confessed in January 2013 to doping during his cycling career.

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Drug scandals in sports – Barry Bonds is baseball's all-time home run leader, but some commentators say there should be an asterisk by his record. Though he's said he never knowingly used steroids, two San Francisco reporters wrote a book alleging he used performance-enhancing drugs. He was indicted on charges of perjury and obstructing justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury investigating steroids, and convicted of obstruction of justice.

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Drug scandals in sports – Lyle Alzado was known as one of the most vicious lineman to ever play the game, and he chalked up more than 100 sacks and almost 1,000 tackles. Before his death from brain cancer at age 43, he told Sports Illustrated he began using steroids in 1969 and that, "On some teams between 75 and 90% of all athletes use steroids."

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Drug scandals in sports – Known as "Rocket" for his aggressive pitching style, Roger Clemens played pro ball for more than two decades, racking up seven Cy Youngs. He left Major League Baseball under a cloud of steroid allegations, despite a court finding him not guilty of perjury when he told Congress he never used the drugs.

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Drug scandals in sports – At 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, Alistair Overeem is known for putting mixed martial arts star Brock Lesnar into early retirement. Ahead of a heavyweight title match against UFC champion Junior dos Santos in May, Overeem tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone and was yanked from the card.

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Drug scandals in sports – An early and chief accuser of Armstrong, Floyd Landis was himself stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He admitted doping in 2010, the same year he accused many other riders of doping as well.

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Drug scandals in sports – As the most decorated Olympian ever, with 22 medals, Michael Phelps is known as a fish in human's clothing, but for a brief period in 2009, after a photo of him smoking a bong was made public, he also was known as a pothead. Despite losing sponsors, he quickly became known for swimming again, securing six medals in the 2012 Games.

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Drug scandals in sports – Marion Jones was a world champion track and field athlete who won several titles in the 1990s and five medals during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. After admitting in 2007 that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs, she was stripped of the gold medals and other honors won after the 2000 Games.

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Drug scandals in sports – Known as "Lights Out" after knocking out four players in a high school game, Shawne Merriman entered the NFL with fanfare, earning 2005 Rookie of the Year honors. His 2006 suspension for steroid use prompted the "Merriman Rule," prohibiting any player who tests positive for steroids from going to the Pro Bowl that year.

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Drug scandals in sports – After his former Texas Rangers teammate Jose Canseco accused him of using steroids, Rafael Palmeiro appeared before Congress to deny the allegations. Later that year, he was suspended from baseball for testing positive for steroids. He maintains to this day he has never knowingly taken performance enhancers.

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Drug scandals in sports – Few NBA players have tested positive for steroids, not only because the sport relies less on raw strength and speed than other sports but also because the league didn't begin testing until 1999. Miami Heat forward Don MacLean became the first to fail a test in 2000, and he was suspended for five games.

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Drug scandals in sports – After racking up awards in college football, Ricky Williams was picked in the first round of the pro football draft in 1999. After testing positive for marijuana in 2004 as a Miami Dolphin, Williams retired and studied holistic medicine in California. He returned to the Dolphins the following year, only to have more run-ins with the NFL drug policy. He retired again in 2011.

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Drug scandals in sports – Bill Romanowski was known for hard hits on the gridiron, but he also violently attacked teammate Marcus Williams during a scrimmage while playing for the Oakland Raiders. In a lawsuit, Williams blamed the attack on Romanowski's "roid rage." Romanowski settled the suit and in 2005 admitted to "60 Minutes" that he used steroids.

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Drug scandals in sports – Sprinter Tim Montgomery set the world record in the 100-meter dash in 2002, but the time was scratched after he was found to have used performance-enhancing drugs. Since his retirement, he has had other legal troubles including arrests for money laundering and heroin offenses. He was sentenced to jail time for both.

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Drug scandals in sports – An Olympian and renowned longball hitter, Mark McGwire spent his entire career with the Oakland A's and St. Louis Cardinals, breaking the single-season home run record in 1998. In 2010, he admitted using steroids over the course of a decade but told Bob Costas in an interview he took them only for health reasons.

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Drug scandals in sports – Ross Rebagliati won a gold medal during the first year of snowboarding at the 1988 Olympics. He was stripped of the medal after testing positive for the active ingredient in marijuana. It became fodder for late-night talk show jokes, but Rebagliati eventually got his medal back after it was determined marijuana was not a banned substance.

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Drug scandals in sports – A winner of eight Grand Slam events, Andre Agassi was considered one of the most dominant tennis players of the 1990s. In 2009, the tennis pro acknowledged in his autobiography that he had failed a drug test for methamphetamine in 1997 but skirted punishment by blaming an assistant.

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Drug scandals in sports – Regarded as the best soccer player after Pele, Diego Maradona was known for his deft footwork and knack for finding the net. In 1991, he was suspended for 15 months after testing positive for cocaine. He would later admit he was addicted to the drug for about 20 years and began using when he was playing for Barcelona in the 1980s.

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Drug scandals in sports – A prolific sprinter in the 1980s, Canadian Ben Johnson routinely bested American Carl Lewis in the 100-meter dash. After winning the gold at Seoul in 1988, Johnson tested positive for a steroid. His coach said Johnson took the drugs to keep up with other athletes and later wrote a book saying all top athletes were using in those days.

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Super Bowl champion Brett Favre was reaching for god-like status and lighting up the screen with Cameron Diaz in the hit movie "There's Something About Mary." Tiger Woods was on his way to global dominance with one Masters Championship. Jay-Z's Grammy-winning "Hard Knock Life" album signaled the arrival of the hip-hop generation and was a favorite at sports arenas. Athletes across all races were all clamoring to mimic his swagger on and off the field.

So how could we hate A-Rod for making coin when everyone else seemed to be cashing in not only on sports but in life?

But like many of us, Alex Rodriguez got caught up in the glare of the spotlight. We were mesmerized by the spotlight, the fame and the big money in sports and ignored how it might change the game. Maybe we took too seriously the goal to "win at all costs."

Major League baseball's been dirty for decades. And all of us fans, media, team owners, athletes and coaches who looked the other way are partly to blame. We never really wanted to see the dark secrets lurking behind the exciting homerun derby. We looked for scapegoats, whether it was Barry Bonds or Jose Canseco and self-righteously hung them out to dry.

Baseball commissioner Bud Selig said today he's going to continue to clean up baseball. "Baseball is a social institution with enormous social responsibility ... and (performance enhancing drugs) will not be tolerated in our game," the commissioner said after the ruling.

Let's hope baseball continues down this path because Thompson's not the only one who wants his game back.

"I'm a Yankees fan, not an Alex Rodriguez fan. I'm still a baseball fan. And I'll be routing for my Yankees tonight as we try to make a push into the playoffs," says Thompson.